t club ops, I don’t care. Whoever shows shows.

At my home ops (so long ago) I’d put out a crew call and get an idea of how many would show. I’d usually get ten operators and told myself we could run with as few as four.

On the Tuscarora Branch Line, we run best with four. We can’t run with any more than that. And with three or two, the session is much more difficult since someone (i.e. me) has to double up on jobs.

I’d set up four (myself included) for a session today but there was a disagreement on the definition of “Saturday after next” (over two Saturdays ago). Since the other two people were newbies, I just moved it back a week.

Still, a tough week with problems with bikes, with people, with death (had one in the family). All that. So I thought about it and figured that the Tuscarora was originally built for one person to run, and I’d run it that way – just the local with myself throwing the tower levers. And, actually, that was pretty easy since I didn’t consider signals.

Anyway, the session was a great deal of fun – without the confusion and extra trains from a larger group, the Tuscarora local could get down to work, knocking out the moves in 90 minutes. And it was enjoyable railroading, just sequential ops. So I guess that’s a point – you don’t need a group to enjoy running a railroad to a purpose.

Afterwards, since a couple of junior members came in (I’d mentioned I’d be there today), I hung around and worked on scenery (painting rails). Overall, very satisfying and enjoyable.

Look for the four-person version of this next week. And it had better be four – just saying.

See you next week on the Tusk!

>>>MAYBE I’LL BRING A BOOK IN CASE NOBODY SHOWS – THERE ARE SOME GOOD ONES DOWN THIS LINK!<<<